You think you’ve seen everything out hacking and then...

Bonnie Allie

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 June 2019
Messages
480
Visit site
Aussie - so far less naked folk as the risk of sunburn is too great........

I was swooped on by a flock of black cockatoos all screeching and flapping around us very close. My dear Connemara who was the original tough guy lost it and flattened himself on the ground before leaping up again and shooting off at speed. Stuck with it......just.

Turned around to see my OH killing himsel with laughter. He couldn’t speak he was laughing so much. No idea why they swooped on my horse and not his.

To all my precious dressage mates who poke fun at me hacking out in a stock saddle, I’ve been able to say that it was the stock saddle that saved me that day.
 

paddy555

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 December 2010
Messages
12,537
Visit site
for mine it was not what he saw but what he heard. We took the horses out on Christmas day. OH on the arab stallion. We decorated the nags with tinsel and put a pair of antlers on each. The antlers had a small button in the middle which when pressed played jingle bells and the like. . OH's slipped and he leant forward to re position them. In doing so he caught the button in the middle. An arab can move very fast when pursued by "Jingle bells" . :eek:
 

Cinnamontoast

Fais pas chier!
Joined
6 July 2010
Messages
35,355
Visit site
One yard I was at was near a Hare Krishna temple so we used to see them sometime.

Patchetts? Blackbirds? We were invited for dinner and they said the horses would be given hay etc. Never got round to it and was horrified that my OH and his team had to go in to allow the vet to euthanise the bullock that could no longer get up. Didn’t really want to associate with them after that.

When my horse colicked, the vet couldn’t get to the yard because it was the Hare Krishna weekend celebration. ?
 

criso

Coming over here & taking your jobs since 1900
Joined
18 September 2008
Messages
11,659
Location
London but horse is in Herts
Visit site
Patchetts? Blackbirds? We were invited for dinner and they said the horses would be given hay etc. Never got round to it and was horrified that my OH and his team had to go in to allow the vet to euthanise the bullock that could no longer get up. Didn’t really want to associate with them after that.

When my horse colicked, the vet couldn’t get to the yard because it was the Hare Krishna weekend celebration. ?

Model but one time en route to Patchetts to do some dressage and arrived somewhat discomposed. The tb didn't approve of flappy clothing, hacking out when I was in London he had a dramatic meltdown at a woman in a hijab that that flapped in the wind causing her to scream and a small child to cry.

Where I am now, the village has a musical gardens day every two years. They struggled to get a horsebox out with an emergency needing to go to the RVC.
 

Boulty

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 April 2011
Messages
2,062
Visit site
Nearly dead dumped horse :( Some walkers came across it at same time, stayed with it & phoned RSPCA & another came along & also phoned a local rescue. Me & my friend continued past as not a lot that could be gained by us hanging around, (we'd boxed up to get there so couldn't just head back to yard & return with supplies without it taking several hours & it was freezing cold so not great to keep our own horses stood about in) & we were worried about the other horse may be carrying but we did loop back past on our way back to where we'd parked up to see if RSPCA were there yet. Somehow the second walker got him to his feet (I tried to help the first lot of walkers hoist it up but was sorta limited in how much I wanted to touch an unknown & clearly unwell horse whilst I had my own with me) & it had been arranged that a local charity would collect him if she could get him to the end of the bridleway (wasn't suitable for them to drive the box down... guess they'd have found a way to carry him if they'd had to but even emaciated horses aren't THAT light!). Anyway cue me & my friend walking our horses just in front at snails pace so this colt would have something to follow. Happily he made a full recovery (apart from losing an eye as it was too damaged by infection to save) & I believe they've now placed him in a lovely foster home.

On more random note not out hacking but the Welsh one once stood unblinking whilst an aircraft took off literally over his head (TREC comp venue with an airfield in the next field!), he also was unbothered by the air ambulance visiting the XC course when we were on a training camp at Somerford (the poor instructor was nearly having an aneurysm as until she started shouting at me to pull his head up in case the massive, noisy helicopter "surprised" him I was letting him munch grass whilst he ignored it). He didn't really come across such things in his everyday life, he was just peculiar in what was & wasn't scary to him (He did spend several years living somewhere surrounded by railway tracks & a river that used to get boats going past regularly though which I think helped with getting him to tolerate the bizzare)
 

Cinnamontoast

Fais pas chier!
Joined
6 July 2010
Messages
35,355
Visit site
Model but one time en route to Patchetts

The tb didn't approve of flappy clothing, hacking out when I was in London he had a dramatic meltdown at a woman in a hijab that that flapped in the wind causing her to scream and a small child to cry.

Crumbs, that road is a 50, did you hack down it? I get to the yard via Patchetts from work, it just makes me want to cry that it’s not there anymore.

I’m pmsl at the idea of your horse making the small child cry! ?

I feel I should know you. We know all the same yards, you’re Spanish, I’m a Spanish teacher...??
 

Bob notacob

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 February 2018
Messages
1,649
Visit site
WE once came upon 3 Alpaca having a bath in a stream we were about to cross. Lancelot ,whilst never having seen one ,but being Irish ,was not about to show himself up .Afterall perhaps everyone else knew this to be perfectly normal Alpaca bathing time of year and might laugh at him if he questioned it. So he rubbed noses with Gerald (lead alpaca), and joined them for a quick paddle .
 

criso

Coming over here & taking your jobs since 1900
Joined
18 September 2008
Messages
11,659
Location
London but horse is in Herts
Visit site
Crumbs, that road is a 50, did you hack down it? I get to the yard via Patchetts from work, it just makes me want to cry that it’s not there anymore.

I’m pmsl at the idea of your horse making the small child cry! ?

I feel I should know you. We know all the same yards, you’re Spanish, I’m a Spanish teacher...??

To be fair I think the woman screaming contributed to upsetting the child. I remember shouting to everyone to calm down and shut up which actually worked and then I got Frankie to calm down and go past.

With the B462 I came out and crossed over and after a few yards there was a little track that runs parallel with some brush between you and the road so I wasn't actually on the main road. It cuts off the corner and comes out on Primrose lane and then you get to Patchetts from the back way or to access bridlepaths round Letchmore Heath. We used to arrive with muddy feet though. I can't bear what's happened to Patchetts and so many other yards.

I'm Hertford way these days and competing wise tend to be at Brook Farm, Oaklands, Harolds Park with bay tb v2.0 who tends towards looking startled.
 

Pippity

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 February 2013
Messages
3,320
Location
Warrington
Visit site
I haven't seen him for a few years, but for about three years, I regularly used to encounter a chap going down the TPT on grass skis - normal skis with little wheels on them. I met him on three different horses, all of whom would boggle every time they saw him, as would any other horse we were with. And every time, he'd be absolutely astonished that the horses were boggling at him.
 

Bangagin

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 July 2006
Messages
259
Location
Essex
Visit site
I think you might well mean THE Naked Rambler, Stephen Gough. He was very well known until a few years ago, spent a lot of time in prison for insisting he had a right to walk naked.

He's the one I came across, and my horse was transfixed by the wobbly bits he'd never seen before. He wouldn't take his eyes off them. It was hilarious.
.

I don't think so looking at his age - it happened in the autumn and he was a lot younger. Seems there might be a lot of it around! :eek:
 

hollyandivy123

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 January 2006
Messages
6,673
Visit site
Got chased by a flasher...
We chased a flasher once, made the mistake of flashing the lounge window in a halls of residence I was a sub warden at.....my mates who were female rugby players were having a cuppa tea with me...we caught him, literally sat on him whilst the police came

You should have see his face when someone asked what balls could they use for practice whilst we waited for the police..?
 

Landcruiser

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 May 2011
Messages
2,907
Location
Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire
Visit site
I told this story once before but just to recap, I had a lively hack where I met, in quick succession, a loose (fully tacked) horse galloping towards us up a lane, then a minute later a vehicle containing the horse's former rider being driven by the person that scooped her off the road. Once they were out of the way we were confronted by a garden shed seemingly levitating from behind a hedge. It was actually being lifted up by a tractor. Horse, as you can imagine, was almost hysterical by this time! A shed, FFS!
 

cindars

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 March 2010
Messages
430
Visit site
Have met falconers on the Downs,low flying 2nd world war planes at my level,very low flying jump jets when we rode the North Downs link near Dunsfold just popped up fro behind hedge. Re-enactors in Devils Dyke think it was either Massacre of Glencoe or Highland clearance the Dyke is always a bit odd anyway strange signs on tree stumps that sort of thing. At Dunsfold as well free flying parrots lovely macaws owner used to let them out for a bit of free flying they always went home. Friend also stopped to pull young lad out of a car in the lane young soldier who didn't want to go back to Ireland.
 

Pearlsasinger

Up in the clouds
Joined
20 February 2009
Messages
44,730
Location
W. Yorks
Visit site
I suddenly came face to face with a hot air balloon, as I rode my 1st Clydesdale down the lane, on the edge of an escarpment, fortunately with a wall at the top, so we were unlikely to fall off the edge. Mare didn't turn a hair.
Her successor was put off off HABs for ever when a rogue one took down a field wall as it attempted to land in a neighbour's field. The beggars scarpered before we could get their details to send them the bill, too!
 

gemisastar

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 February 2019
Messages
156
Visit site
Last year I borrowed a friend's very quiet, elderly gelding and took my completely novice sister for a quiet walk along the country lanes. I was on my mare who can be a bit, ahem, spooky. Anyway we were wandering along when out of NOWHERE (we're nowhere near an air base or anything), what I can only describe as looking like a Hercules plane appeared over the hill, coming directly towards us. Seeing it I basically told sister to grab a load of mane and hold on (her face was an absolute picture), this plane roared directly above us very low, it seemed like it was 20 metres above. Horses didn't bat an eyelid but I nearly lost control of my bladder!
 

DirectorFury

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 February 2015
Messages
3,337
Visit site
Hacking down towards a cliff edge (going towards it so I couldn't see over/what was coming) we once had two incredibly low flying fighter jets appear and come towards us head on. I heard them before I saw them but couldn't figure out wtf the noise was - I was practically having a panic attack thinking a world ending weather event was about to hit us ?. Horse just kept plodding along and didn't even flick an ear at them; quite a feat when the horse usually has a meltdown at flowers/bins/butterflies.

Another time the horse suddenly stopped on a narrow bridlepath, she wasn't alert/worried/tense, just stopped. I got quite annoyed after she ignored my leg a few times when she suddenly dropped her head as if she was pointing at something on the floor. At this point the numpty on top (me) decided to actually use their eyes and there was a massive adder curled up asleep(?sunbathing) on the path. It then uncoiled and slithered off into the hedge and our hack continued as normal. I'm now very very aware of what's on and beside the bridlepaths now, particularly in the summer.
 

DragonSlayer

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 July 2008
Messages
7,787
Location
Rigil Kentaurus
Visit site
People having sexual intercourse and then pretending not to when they see us - her sat in the grass making a hasty daisy chain and him walking away from us with no pants on.

Me and Mr DS were out riding one pleasant Sunday morning. My mare was always in the front as she was super-speedy, and Mr DS was behind on his gelding. We passed a car on the BP, the window was open, and a couple were in the passenger seat naked....having a great time....I averted my eyes, tried not to snort....but Mr DS nodded his head and said loudly...'Morning!'...

The couple dissolved into giggles, I was hanging onto dear life trying not to laugh and Mr DS just grinned and kept on walking...
 

criso

Coming over here & taking your jobs since 1900
Joined
18 September 2008
Messages
11,659
Location
London but horse is in Herts
Visit site
Seems to be a lot of couples in cars, I guess bridleways are a convenient place to park up.

The last time I saw some, they saw me coming a way off and were innocently sitting side by side by the time I passed but I'd seen them quickly move apart and rearrange clothing as I approached. The window was open so as I went past I mentioned I'd be coming back in about 20 minutes - didn't want them to start up again and get interrupted once more.
 
Top